Violations of Iraqi Children's Rights Under Occupation

[Peter Lemkin]

BBC has just today done a report [only as sound now...will post when they transcribe] more than 13X increase in teratology [birth defects] in Fallujah - likely due to Depleted Uranium and other chemicals/munitions used by the US Forces and their poodles. Having studied Epidemiology, if it is above 13X in this number of years [and that is likely a very lowball figure even now!], it likely will go up by many fold in the next years. We have essentially poisoned and killed - or destroyed the lives of up to half of the children in Iraq. Almost no one in America cares about the 1.000.000 dead....let alone the children. We have become a callous world who watch and even fund and cheer-on holocausts without stopping to scream or march in the streets....except for a handful of moral souls, I fear. They hate us not for our 'freedoms' [we lost those anyway], they hate us for our bestial behavior, imperialism and genocidal war against them. Do listen to the BBC broadast - they get 3 cases of horrible birth defects per day - it was one per three months before the war. http://www.google.cz/url?q=http://news.b...pfXGDv3Pxg

Very partial transcript - listen to the audio please!
Birth defects 'have risen since US Falluja operation'
By John Simpson
World affairs editor, BBC News

Many families left the town ahead of the US-led operation in 2004

A paediatrician and parents have told the BBC of a high level of birth defects among children in Falluja, Iraq, blaming weapons used by the US.

Six years ago, in 2004, there were fierce battles as US forces subdued two uprisings in the town.

Now, one hospital doctor told the BBC that they see two or three cases of birth defects each day.

The US military says it is not aware of any official reports showing an increase in birth defects in the area.

It says it always takes public health concerns about any population now living in a combat theatre "very seriously".

I am a doctor, I have to be scientific... I have no proof and I have nothing documented, but I can tell you that year by year they were increasing
Local hospital doctor

"No studies to date have indicated environmental issues resulting in specific health issues," said US Military Health System Communications Director Michael Kilpatrick.

"Unexploded ordinance, including improvised explosive devises, are a recognised hazard," he added.

But local people blame the weapons used by the US troops during the fighting.

It was hard to find doctors at the brand-new, US-funded hospital in Falluja who were prepared to talk about the problem.

'Savage epidemic'

I was told they were scared to speak because the Iraqi government did not want to create trouble for the Americans.

The official line is that Falluja has only two or three cases of birth defects a year more than normal.

But, in the children's ward, I spoke to a paediatrician who told me he saw as many as two or three cases a day, mainly cardiac defects.

That would mean that this medium-sized town has some 1,000 cases of birth defects a year.

Every doctor, and every parent I spoke to there, believed the problem was the highly sophisticated weapons the US troops used against Falluja six years ago.

The rubble from the damaged buildings was bulldozed into the river - and people in Falluja have got their drinking water from there ever since.

I went to a house where all three young children were suffering from paralysis or brain damage.

A man who heard I was there brought his daughter to show me - she had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, and suffered from several serious diseases.

Falluja is in the grip of a savage epidemic, and the victims are the weakest and most vulnerable of all.